1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to conveyor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The retail food industry has seen significant gains in productivity in recent years. Greater volumes of food products can be passed through check-stands, thanks to the use of self bagging and double and triple belted check-stands.
Modern check-stand control systems use optical signalling to control the motion of the conveyor depending on the presence or absence of food products. In most cases, this involves the use of an emitter/receiver pair of optical units located on opposite sides of the conveyor. The optical units, along with the conveyor motors and the like, are controlled by a check-stand control.
Conventionally, these components are mounted in separate locations in the check-stand. Servicing requires that each component be dealt with separately and by skilled technicians. However, skilled technicians are often in short supply causing delays and adding to the expensive down time. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a conveyor control device that is complete and self contained so that rectification of any fault in the conveyor control system can be achieved by any nonskilled person by simply replacing the control device.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel conveyor device.